The 100,000 figure represents the total number of patients admitted into the Center’s Inpatient, Residential Day Treatment (RDT), Intensive Outpatient and Family programs since the Center opened its doors October 4, 1982.

The announcement was made by the Chair of the Center’s Board of Directors, Dr. Mary Pattiz, who said, “This is another important milestone in the Center’s commitment to provide access to quality care to as many people as possible. It seems appropriate that the person admitted as our 100,000th patient is a woman, given Betty Ford’s insistence 30-plus years ago that half our treatment beds be reserved for women.”

The Center’s CEO Emeritus, John Schwarzlose, paid tribute to the Center’s 240 staff members. “We have very little turnover in our staff,” he said. “That’s highly unusual in the addiction treatment field. Our staff represents the best of the best. They are uniquely qualified to work with patients who have this chronic, complex biological and psychological illness.”

The Betty Ford Center continues to focus on alcoholism and other drug addiction as a disease which requires a multidisciplinary approach to treatment.

Not included in the 100,000 count are the thousands of young people age 7-12 who participate in the Center’s unique Children’s Program. The children – not themselves addicted to alcohol or other drugs, but who live in a family environment dominated by addiction – come to the Center for four days. They learn about the disease of addiction and the promise of treatment and recovery.

While announcing and celebrating the 100,000-patient benchmark, John Schwarzlose cited a National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) study that concluded that of the 16 million Americans needing treatment for addiction to alcohol and/or other drugs, only 2 million will actually receive treatment during their lifetime.

“While it’s a sad fact that millions of deserving men and women are still not able to access quality treatment, for many, many reasons,” according to Schwarzlose, “here at the Betty Ford Center we continue to provide individualized, quality care for each and every patient who comes to us for help – and hope.”